Curly's Trip
by newyorknewyork
Summary: Curly Shepard falls off a telephone pole and breaks his arm. One shot.


DISCLAIMER: I don't own The Outsiders. I know it's hard to believe, but it's entirely true.

The telephone pole on 5th street was so tall Ponyboy Curtis could hardly see the top. It reminded him of one of those old Indian totem poles, except with a couple of pairs of old sneakers hanging off of the cables. Looking up, he had to shield his eyes from the sun.

"We should climb it," Curly Shepard decided, also looking up at the top, though not bothering to cover his eyes as Ponyboy had. "That would be tuff. I betcha there's a great view up there."

Ponyboy looked incredulously at his friend, and took a swig of his Pepsi. "I think I like the view from down here just fine."

Curly laughed manically. Ponyboy was a funny kid, but Curly was sure he could talk him into it. He could talk him into a lot of things.

"Aw, come on, Curtis. How many people can say they've climbed a damn telephone pole? That's a cool story."

Ponyboy chuckled a bit. "Nobody with any drop of sanity," he replied.

Curly shoved Ponyboy hard, so that he nearly fell onto the cement ground. "Don't make me rearrange your face," he said, only half-joking.

"You can go for it, but if Tim sees you, you're dead. I mean, he's probably up in the apartment over there watching us right now." Ponyboy motioned to the rundown apartment building across the street, where Tim Shepard was visiting a buddy.

Curly looked at the building and hesitated a moment before saying, "Oh I'm not afraid of my brother."

Ponyboy snorted with laughter and Curly gave him an _Imgonnabeatyou_ look. Ponyboy chuckled lightly again and lit a cigarette. The pair looked back up at the telephone pole. The sun was going down slightly so that it emitted a deep, orange glow and it didn't hurt as much to look.

"I'm gonna do it, it'll be fun," Curly said, walking straight up to the giant pole and putting his right foot on the lowest silver peg. Ponyboy was just being a wuss if he didn't follow.

Ponyboy took another drink of Pepsi, another drag on his cigarette and walked closer to the pole as Curly diligently climbed higher up. Pony actually, for a small second, considered climbing up too, but then he reminded himself how dim-witted Curly was and how bad he was going to catch it from Tim if he knew. There were surely better ways to remedy boredom than putting your life at the will of gravity. Curly could be a blasted fool sometimes, Pony knew.

Curly was nearly at the top when he looked down at Ponyboy and called out, "Hey, man, you can see the whole city from up here!"

This exclamation got the attention of a few pedestrians and they stopped to watch him. Curly was so high up all anyone could see was his basic, shadowy outline.

Of course Tim, being on time for everything, strolled out of the apartment complex at this moment and his eyes narrowed like a cat's when he noticed a boy, whom he was sure was his baby brother, nearing the top of a damn telephone pole. Tim walked as fast as he could without actually running across the street and confronted Ponyboy.

"Curtis, you tell me that's not my brother up there."

Ponyboy's words caught in his throat. He didn't want to say the wrong thing and get his head kicked straight into his neck. If Shepard could give even Dally a good beating, he wasn't someone Pony wanted to upset in the least.

Tim took Ponyboy's silence to mean _yes_, and he shoved the youngest Curtis brother aside to get a better look at his own. Man, Curly could act more idiotic than Angela sometimes. "Curly Shepard, what the fuck do you think you're doin'?" Tim yelled up at his brother. "You fuckin' blasted idiot, I'm gonna skin you alive if you don't get down here now!"

But Tim planned on killing Curly even if he flew down off that pole on a magic carpet that very second.

From where Curly was, just about to reach the top, he stopped. He recognized his brother's voice and it sounded more menacing and angry than usual. He looked down with fright at the tiny figures on the ground.

"O-okay!" Curly stuttered, hoping to calm Tim down.

Tim was the kind of guy you didn't want mad at you, especially if you were his brother. Curly lowered a shaky foot onto the peg just below the one on which he already stood. He started to move his other foot, but was suddenly stricken with fear of falling, and missed the lower peg. This caused his fear to meet him straight-on and Curly found himself losing his grip and falling, very quickly, to the ground.

Ponyboy, Tim, and a myriad of fellow-onlookers watched as the young Shepard boy's dark blue eyes grew wide and the color literally drained out of his face. He hit the cracked concrete with a loud thud. Everyone heard the crack of a bone, or bones, breaking, but Curly did not yell out in pain.

Pony dropped both his Pepsi bottle and his cigarette and hurried over to Curly, kneeling down at his left side.

Tim also walked over in two long strides and looked down at his brother, who was beginning to moan in pain.

"Stupid, fucking, blasted dumb-ass kid …"


End file.
